The repercussions of the Israeli aggression on Gaza were not limited to depriving residents of their homes or patients of their right to hospitalization, but rather made access to the most basic necessities of living an unattainable wish, including drinking water.

Yahya Al-Najjar, like many displaced people, spends hours of the day trying to get a drink of fresh or salty water, just to satisfy the thirsty people waiting for him.

A woman from Gaza said that her grandson contracted hepatitis from the water he obtained and used for washing, ablution, and cooking food.

Epidemics sweep Gaza

The absence of fresh drinking water, which has become a rare currency in the Gaza Strip, has led to a worsening health situation, amid overcrowding and a complete inability to isolate those infected with infectious diseases.

One Palestinian explained that there is a lack of services, water, care, and hygiene in shelter centers.

Diseases spread like wildfire with the harsh winter cold, affecting camps, shelter centers, and even hospitals, which became hotspots for the rapid spread of epidemic diseases.

In turn, Doctor Karam Madboul attributed the matter to an unhealthy environment lacking the most basic necessities of life.

Overcrowding, poor hygiene standards, and scarcity of medicine and food have led to the emergence of a number of diseases, including cases of pneumonia, diarrhea, skin diseases such as smallpox, and type 1 hepatitis. More than eight thousand cases were recorded, in addition to cases of measles and other infectious diseases.

A starvation methodology that can only be briefly described as genocide, exacerbated by the catastrophic spread of epidemics and the decomposition of bodies under rubble and in the streets, amid the complete destruction of the sanitation infrastructure, as well as the spread of waste in public places and displacement centers.

Last month, the Palestinian Environmental Quality Authority revealed that “the shortage of potable water and the closure of all water desalination plants, as a result of the ongoing Israeli occupation aggression, resulted in 66% of the people of the Gaza Strip suffering from the spread of diseases transmitted through contaminated water, such as cholera, chronic diarrhea, and intestinal diseases.” .

The "Environmental Quality" warned of the dangers of "the Israeli occupation's bombing of sewage lines" in the Strip, noting that these practices "lead to a health and environmental catastrophe."

Source: Al-Arabi - Agencies